Karkinitis
[IACP 698]

Triton XVI, Lot: 160. Estimate $500. Sold for $400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TAURIC CHERSONESOS, Karkinitis. Circa 470-460 BC. Cast Æ (20mm, 0.92 g). Anokhin 601; Kutajsov Type II; SNG BM Black Sea –; SNG Pushkin –; SNG Stancomb 449. VF, brown patina. Very rare.

From the Alex Shubs Collection.

As with Tyra, the exact location of Karkinitis is still uncertain, with many confliciting statements in the ancient texts pointing to various locations in the western Tauric Chersonesos. The consensus opinion is that the city located just west of modern Yevpatoria. Archaeological evidence from that location dates its founding to the late 6th century BC, probably by settlers from Chersonesos. Karkinitis was one of the earliest cities in the region to issue coinage, with its first series belonging to the period when cast arrowhead money was still in circulation. According to Kutajsov’s study of the 5th century coinage at Karkinitis, the city began to cast their particular arrowhead money in the first third of the century. At the time, however, the cast dolphins from Olbia were overtaking the arrowheads of Borysthenes in trade, and this is reflected at Karkinitis, where the arrowheads quickly evolved into a hybrid form, with an arrowhead on one side and a fish or dolphin on the other. The fish/dolphin side of these coins also featured a K, the first letter of the city’s name. In the third quarter of the 5th century, this cast coinage was replaced with a new round form of cast coinage that had a fish on the obverse and K or KA on the reverse. It appears that the cast coinage of Kerkinitis ended by 400 BC, and the city had no further issues of coinage until the mid-late 4th century BC. The struck coinage of the city generally comprises two groups of bronze coins whose dating is still debated. The first group comprises a variety of three types (Lion attacking bull/Nike, Head of Herakles/Eagle, and Head of female/Horseman) that are all represented in the important 1917 Eupatoria Hoard. Anokhin places these coins in three separate issues from circa 330-300 BC, while Stolba’s 1996 analysis of the hoard places the coins in two issues, both dating to the period of circa 345-340 BC. There seems to be a consensus that this group belongs to the mid-4th century, and Stolba’s archaeological and typological examination of the coinage is quite persuasive and is followed here. The second group of struck coinage at Karkinitis comprises a single seated Skythian/horse type that was struck in the late 4th (Stolba) or early 3rd (Anokhin) century BC. While very little is known about the city, it is clear that from the mid 4th century, Karkinitis was under the influence of the city of Chersonesos. As such, its small bronze issues were certainly for local consumption, and there was no need for Karkinitis to strike a precious metal coinage.